


In Which a Dragon finds Acceptance Among Enemies

by janazza



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Zuko is a Dragon, Zuko is a WereDragon, fanfic of a fanic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-16
Updated: 2020-07-21
Packaged: 2021-03-05 05:33:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,816
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25319125
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/janazza/pseuds/janazza
Summary: In which Zuko is held captive long enough to have to admit his scaly little problem before the crew tries to kill him.
Comments: 53
Kudos: 1795





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [MuffinLance](https://archiveofourown.org/users/MuffinLance/gifts).
  * Inspired by [Salvage](https://archiveofourown.org/works/21116591) by [MuffinLance](https://archiveofourown.org/users/MuffinLance/pseuds/MuffinLance). 



> this is a fanfic set in MuffinLance's “Salvage” fic with elements of “Dragon Moon” (Satirrian) in it. You don't have to read "Dragon Moon" to know what's going on, but I highly recommend! 
> 
> This takes place the day before the Earth Kingdom ship would arrive.  
> Let’s also assume the Water Tribe ships, or at least Hakoda’s, is big enough to fit a dragon at the back of it with no issue and leave plenty of room for a full crew.

Hakoda received correspondence that both brought relief and dread. Luckily, nothing had caught fire yet, but that didn’t mean it wouldn’t in due time. The prince’s temperature fluctuated like the tide: chronically predictable, but knowledge didn’t weaken her storms. And by the time the Earth Kingdom had announced being only a day away from the rendezvous to discuss moving the prince into their care, his crew notably stood split even as the prince grew agitated and nearly burnt half the clothes he dried. 

But he apologized, which made the smoldering tolerable. “It’s just hard to control right now.”

Toklo lightly smacked his shoulder. “What, is it your time of the month?”

And Panuk pulled the pants from Zuko’s hands before he could fry them and shouted about the stupidity of calling laundry women’s work. 

Then he froze, because while Toklo laughed, Aake had seen, and Zuko already stood up to march to Hakoda’s office without prompting. Hakoda watched this, having just finally left the cramped space below for some fresh air, but he couldn’t ignore open flame bending without the crew ratting him out to him later anyway. 

So he trudged back into his office where Zuko already stood outside ready, shoulders back and stance that of an awaiting guard than someone assuming punishment. 

And that’s because Zuko planned to talk first. 

Hakoda hadn’t even the chance to offer the seat across from him before Zuko spoke. “I can’t sleep with the rest of the crew tonight.” He said it quickly but matter-of-factly. And Hakoda stared baffled, unsure if their prisoner realized his situation. 

Was Zuko more upset about the comment than he realized? “Just because of a squabble between you and one of my crew doesn’t mean—“

“It’s not that. However, I understand I acted out of term and accept your consequences. However, if you're not killing me by evening, I need to be on deck tonight.”

Hakoda had no idea what was going on. “You’re not in trouble. Accidents happen, and you quickly took control. Keep those minimum and there won’t be any issues. . . Is this a fire nation ritual or something you’re doing?”

“Or something,” he said tersely. 

The chief sat back in his chair, arms crossed. “I need a little more than that, prince Zuko.”

And he could see how the prince grit his teeth, the intensity in his jaw like a snapping-viper readying to strike. Or someone tasting the lie on his tongue first. 

“I’ll transform and your crew will probably try to kill me.”

“Come again?”

“I’ll transform. And your crew will freak out and probably kill me anyway.”

Tui and La, he pinched the bridge of his nose. “Zuko, I’m not in the mood for any games.”

“This isn’t a game! I’m trying to warn you!” Hakoda noticed the hint of steam from the boy’s nostrils. 

“From what?”

“From myself!”

He picked a weird kid. Zuko was definitely an awkward baby sealgull and it made the topknot and defiance feel like disguises. Considering how horrible his last interrogation went with the prince, he should have known it would be short and cut just enough to force Hakoda to fill the gaps himself between bizarre tales. But this time he expected it and clarified where needed. 

“Transform how?” It was a weird way to explain anything that Hakoda already tried to hypothesize. 

But the boy snapped his mouth shut and stared at him unfocused, and Hakoda wondered if he lost him to whatever horrible thoughts Zuko deemed the Water Tribesmen willing to do to get what they want. And Zuko looked away when he mumbled out an answer that left Hakoda's patience wavering: “a dragon.”

“Like you lose control of your fire?”

He faced him then as he corrected, “No, I turn into a dragon.”

Weird kid. Tall-tales. Banished with his sister likely to take the throne. Pampered all his life and didn’t know how to wash clothes or cook or mop a deck. And now he stood in Hakoda’s office saying he turned into a dragon. It sounded like a very lonely child telling a ridiculous story and not realizing Hakoda wasn’t one of his subjects that would just nod. 

But Zuko continued. “It’s a new moon tonight, and I can’t stop it. I don’t want to hurt anyone, but I can’t be below deck.”

“And why should I believe this?”

He bristled at that like an armadillo cat. “Because you value your men’s lives. And if this wasn’t real, why would I bring it up? I work to earn my keep, not to just spit spirit tales at you that would make it worse for me.”

As if he believed his children had been near literal volcanoes while traveling around with the Avatar who he still wasn’t sure returned. 

“Look, put me under watch. Have Aake snap my leg like you always wanted. I don’t care. But it’s going to be worse in a few hours, and I-- don’t let everyone else get hurt because of your mistake.”

Hakoda held back the bitterness at hearing Zuko’s statement, then his eyes settled on the scar and he simmered. Did he do that to himself? 

“Okay, so let’s say what you’re saying is real. How do I know you won’t fly away?” It was the kind with wings, right? Was this a real conversation?

“Father had my wings clipped after I first transformed. And we’re in the middle of the ocean.” 

“Will you attack my men?”

The prince tensed at this. “Not if they keep to themselves.” 

He didn’t believe the prince for a moment, but he did believe the boy either had a very strange escape plan that involved warning them ahead of time or that he would lose control of his bending tonight, maybe a fire nation fleet would pass by and would see his demonstration tonight. 

So he leaned forward on the desk and wondered how this boy was still alive. “Would drugging you to sleep stop it?”

“What? No!”

“Would confining you?”

That only made the boy’s eyes widen and he knew behind his back those hands were in fist. “It’s exactly why I’m trying to not be below deck.”

“Anything I can do to make this bearable?” Because maybe this was a firebender thing and had something to do with the fact they run at a higher baseline than his people. Maybe he thought he’d scorch the cabin during the night. Maybe his nightmares were worse. 

“Just.” The boy looked ready to pull out his topknot and then some. “Work with me. I have no way to prove it, so just— humor me, and you’ll see I’m telling the truth.”

He should just order the kid to get back to work and finish preparing a potential contract over turning him over to the Earth Kingdom. A smarter man would call the boy delusional and experiencing his first fit of cabin fever. But he didn’t because he saw that distressed look in his eye like he really thought Hakoda would take his leg right then and there. So he nodded his head and accepted whatever this is.

“You will be monitored as per usual. No funny business.”

And the prince’s mood only seemed to sour further. 

* * *

By sunset, the prince had been banned from chores, or really touching anything, and Tuluk and many of the older Tribesmen made glances or knowing looks to Hakoda, majority of them already spreading that the prince would remain on deck tonight for his firebending. The youngest of the crew mopped once more and pails of water sat in different corners at the ready, assuming the prince may lose control and really need to be dunked back into the ocean. Aake already offered to be the one to hold him over the ledge. 

But by that time, the next time Zuko approached Hakoda, he would admit the teen’s eyes almost glowed. “Just a warning, I’m not in full control. I mean— I’m there, but it’s instinct. Don’t let anyone get close.” 

The crew still stood warily. Hakoda tasked Panuk earlier to learn anything else he could, but he merely shook his head when the prince’s back was turned. 

So at sunset the boy took to a seiza in the center of the deck as the crew finished the last of their chores or meals. Those that thought this to just be an act of rebellion readied themselves for bed. 

Hakoda stood idly to the side with a pale of water at his side. 

At the last lick of sunlight, the boy stood and removed his clothes, and Hakoda assumed hypothermia may have set in from how long he sat there as a fire bender in the incoming night’s chill. But when Toklo tried to step forward, Panuk placed a hand on his shoulder. Then he saw what he never expected to see in his lifetime. 

Tales of beast were common among his people, but just tales in the end. They spoke of sea serpents guarding Water Tribe’s islands, and flying bison teaching children to be free of earth’s worries, of dragons that chased the sun for glory and badgermoles that built the mountains. But these were only stories to the Water Tribe, of people who took to seclusion for safety and only knew the mainland’s tales from traveling merchant’s lips. They still believed in spirits and prayed for them to guide their dying loved ones. 

So when smoke emitted from the boy’s nose and horns grew from each side of his forehead, and his body swelled unnaturally, and his shoulder blades expanded into torn up wings, all with an ethereal glow as if touched by a spirit, Hakoda didn’t reach for his pale of water nor the rope at his hip. Instead he stared in awe at the beast that stood just a hair higher than Hakoda with the same eyes as the prince, the same burning scar bleeding through its left eye and disrupted the scales there. On a moonless night, the lasting twilight did little to show the shimmer of his scales, but the few lanterns did.

And those of his crew that broke out of their stupor shouted and pulled their clubs from their hips and spears from where they lined the ship wall. And the beast bristled just like the prince, with a tale that swept across the deck as it turned its body to the side and _growled._ And at this angle, he saw what was the beast’s wings. They weren’t clipped like a gecko-chicken, where the primary feathers would be cut short, like he expected. But rather the webbing between the bones that made up the wing, like the webbed feet of a turtle duck, had been cut cleanly out, leaving them thin and bony but nothing between to express the wingspan’s true size. 

A faint glow peared at its throat as its eyes locked onto the advancing group, the blast ready to take down the entire ship in its maw of too many rows of teeth, but Hakoda saw in the lizard like eyes the same fear of a wounded animal.. 

Then Hakoda was running.

And his men readily approached like it were an armadillo-buffalo, taking up the sides and front until it had no choice but to step back towards the edge of the ship. 

But Hakoda pushed back Tuluk and stood in front of his men weaponless with his back to the beast. “Wait!” He could hear it’s growl, feel the heat coming off the beast, but he remained where he stood with his arms held up harmlessly. “Put your weapons away. He has caused no harm.” 

The beast’s snarls weren’t helping. 

The Ranalok stepped forward with spear in hand towards Hakoda. “That thing will topple the boat before anyone can react. We can’t let it just sit there!” 

“If you step any closer, it may as well burn down the ship. And we don’t want that, do we? So, I suggest to all of you, to step back, keep your pales ready, and we’ll wait it out.” He said this all the while realizing he never asked how long this would take. “Chief’s orders,” he tagged on, glaring back at Ranalok and Aake who too had begun to step forward. “The moment he breathes fire, he’s all yours. Until then, we wait.”

And Ranalok, who’d grown a soft spot for the firebender, stepped back first, then Tuluk picked up spears to put them aside. Aake held his place the longest and Hakoda had never feared a coup until this moment. But the man’s eyes flicked to the still snarling dragon, then stepped back and took a seat right there, his club settled across his lap and a spear at his side. 

Hakoda breathed a sigh of relief to look to the dragon once more and its one good eye and the wings that were nothing more than their bones. It stood at the edge like it would rather risk a swim than be on their ship, and Hakoda for once couldn’t blame the prince for seeking escape. When it watched Hakoda step forward cautiously, it snarled, but the man kept his pace slow, and hands where it could see them until he knelt before the prince’s pile of clothes, torn off quickly. He sat by the pile as he folded them neatly, including the borrowed parka and Fire Nation shirt. Once done, he stepped back. He warned Kustaa to lock Scuttles in his sick bay until this was over. 

* * *

It was only at dawn that the beast shifted positions, having held itself as far away as possible from the crew at the stern of the ship, waiting for someone, anyone, to attack. And even as the beast went from taller than Hakoda to barely reaching his chest as a child, the boy took up the corner, legs brought up to cover himself and his shivering arms locking around them. And those same terrified eyes continued to glare at the crew that still sat awake. Some had gone to bed, while others’ exhaustion showed in the puffing of eyes and bruising beneath similarly to the prince’s. 

When Hakoda approached once more, he expected to be snarled at again, but the prince let him come forward, if not go stock still like a viper waiting for him to make the wrong move, as he dumped the pile of clothes at the boy’s feet. 

“Back to work,” he said before initiating the same order to the crew. 

When the Earth Kingdom ship arrived, the boy slept through most of the affair. 

* * *

He didn’t sell the prince to the Earth Kingdom. 

He’d brought up the question of dragons as casually as he possibly could.

And the man had laughed. “There are no dragons left. Where do you think the Dragon of the West gets his name? They’re nothing more than legend.” 

What he let sleep in the same room as the rest of his crew was something very special.

* * *

Before sending his response to the Fire Lord for the box of Water Tribe fingers, he asked for a single scale from the prince for authenticity.

The boy had sat shaking in the seat across from him in his office that left the Chief wishing he could swallow back his words. But Zuko nodded sullenly in a way that reminded him too much of the boy's age. “Sure. But let me do it.”

The next time he transformed, the beast bit at its own tail until a single, bloody scale loosened.

When he transformed back, the scale remained and Zuko avoided eye contact.

* * *

The Fire Lord still claimed it to be just a pangolin-snake scale and would prefer a head or the entire hide. 

* * *

At one point, Toklo and Panuk grew unafraid of the beast that took up a corner of the ship every new moon and chucked freshly caught fish at it and watched the dignified prince swallow them whole. 

At one point, Toklo even touched the almost iridescent scales and felt how the skin expanded with every inhale. 

When the prince returned to them, he described the fish as the most disgusting thing that slid down his throat.

* * *

The crew burst into the laughter when the isopuppy nearly sent the dragon off the ship in fear. Said incident is not to be brought up around the prince to secure the ship's integrity. Not that he allowed speak of his dragon-ness either. 

* * *

When Bato rejoined the crew, it was like a dozen steps backward and this time the dragon nearly fell off the end of the ship to keep his distance. 

But Toklo, the youngest and held the least of the men’s respect, stood between them.

“If he falls, he can’t climb back up! He’ll die!”

And Hakoda realized just how vulnerable a wingless dragon the size of an adult polar bear dog was to just a few men on a ship.

* * *

When Hakoda finally let the prince read his father’s letters, the dragon stood at the stern with his back to the crew, staring down at the water, and Hakoda wondered if he would have jumped into that freezing water if not for Panuk sitting at his side, talking about nothing and everything. 

* * *

He realized that Zuko was never looking at the stars. He had been studying the phases of the moon, readying himself for his next transformation. 

But by the next new moon, the dragon laid down cautiously, watching the few men that still kept an eye on him just in case, with Panuk and Toklo leaning against his side dozing off. 

* * *

“You’re like a furnace.”

_“Shut it.”_

* * *

It was long into the time that the crew accepted Zuko as one of their own, with his own clothes and swords and an actual shift rather than working all day that Toklo came up with the idea while at a neutral port. They would spend the evening there on a new moon for the first time with the dragon shifter, and Hakoda already planned to let the dragon roam free in the dense forest away from any prying eyes. 

“What if we could make him fly?”

The beast hardly sat still, bristling at having what was left of his wings touched. But Toklo wrote down his measurements carefully in a journal beside the fire the dragon lit himself. The men that joined them had laughed at the irritated dragon like it was only a housepet. 

* * *

Toklo went off for some shopping while Zuko carried supplies for Kustaa.

And as he picked out different things, including items that were nonmedicinal and were too small to ever fit Kustaa, he said, “You know, that’s a pretty tough secret to hide. How’d you do it?”

“I didn’t.” He adjusted his hold as more things piled up. “It’s a palace secret. Those allowed to serve in the palace are never allowed to seek work elsewhere. And my navy crew were handpicked by Uncle, and similarly sworn to the job for life.”

“And your father just let you leave?”

“Not necessarily.” The boy hardly spoke about his own life, and perhaps it was because it was Kustaa that he was so honest. “You’re aware I was banished after losing my Agni Kai?”

“Remind me again, boy.”

“It’s a duel between firebenders. To death or surrender. I refused to fight my father and lost.”

That was new. Zuko had never told him just who he lost to. “Okay.”

“I wasn’t instantly banished. I’ve always been a failure, second in everything to my sister. Cursed, too. According to Uncle,” he said, pausing to catch his breath at the weight in his hands or perhaps for the weight of his words, “I was to be executed.”

Kustaa stopped in his tracks just before they’d returned to the ship, and Zuko nearly ran into him. He thought of the torn up wings and the scar across the boy’s eye that ruined his ear, too. He considered the revelation the boy was banished just days after turning thirteen with an oozing burn treated on a ship instead of a warm bed, how Zuko would especially turn his head if someone spoke to him on his left side. Without looking back, the man said, “I’m glad you weren’t.” 

The banished former prince said nothing. 

* * *

Toklo took to his hammock much earlier than usual until the next new moon, in which he brought forth a mix of metals and fabrics that made the dragon turn its head in confusion. Then he bribed it with fish, and went to work on the first wing. 

Then the second. 

And he admired his work, pulling carefully at the metal loops that went around the fingers of the wings and the flexible fabric between them that acted like the webbed membrane. He used a majority of his pay and some of Panuk’s for this and spent his evenings with Zuko’s tiny stove meant for cooking to weld the metal bits as needed. Some sort of halter across the chest would help secure it, but until they reached port tomorrow--

He yelped as he fell from the dragon’s back as it flapped the bony wings and the contraption made them so real in the dark, the men stood up from where they played pai sho. 

“Easy! Zuko, they’re not ready yet!” 

The beast stretched them wide and tall, the expanse reaching past the lower rungs of the mast, like it had just woken up, and Toklo wondered if this was the first time he had ever used the appendages in any sort of manner. 

He patted the side of the dragon as it twisted its wings experimentally but settled on the deck once more. “You’ll get to test them eventually, buddy.” 

When Zuko returned to them, there was a lightness to him the crew had no idea how to handle, as if a happy ex-prince could be more volatile than the familiar pissed one. 

“The rings are too loose here, and these would work better with leather.”

Zuko said nothing about the fact his wings were a patchwork of blue cloths. 

* * *

It’s after a kidnapping attempt and a long time spent isolating that the entire crew of Atluk chose land over their ship to camp out on an inlet, taking the beach as their own with lit fires by their only firebender and a majority of their sea prunes offered up as a thank you to the beast lounging beside them as Toklo and Ranalok secured their latest attempt around the wings and body of the lazing creature. He complied easily with their pokes to sit up or stand with little irritation, giddy too at the aspect of what the two were doing for him.

And they’d barely taken a step back when he stood up on all fours with his wings beating in such a manner that it took out the closest campfire. The crew stared. Then Zuko looked at them, and Hakoda could swear if a dragon could smile, this was it. 

Then he ran, wings still flapping like a duckling and the crew standing up to watch it bound over and over until it took off at a sprint towards a small hill. It bound in the air higher like a fox, and he didn't come back down, the blue fabric held, taking it off the ground until passing over the tops of trees skirting them like they were the sea. The entire crew of Atluk, including Aake and Bato, cheered as it banked to the side to circle around them like they were prey rather than its crewmates. And it flew higher, and in the moonless sky it disappeared, only the small blinking of stars ever giving away its location. None of Atluk were afraid.

And after minutes, its beating wings displaced the sand until it landed with a heavy thud, and it breathed heavily like it had never experienced such a rush. 

Then crew circled it with excitement, patting it’s scales and the line of fur down its back, and others bumped shoulders with the it’s-so-stupid-it’s-brilliant inventor Toklo, each accepting their crew's weird way of showing affection. 

* * *

General Iroh found the morning’s letters on what became his desk, with the top report describing a raid by a Water Tribe ship with a flying beast capsizing ally ships just North of their current position. He’d burnt the letter to crisp, and headed South with his heart lighter than it had ever been since the day Zuko left Caldera. 

* * *

The day that Fire Lord Zuko took the throne, the majority of the Atluk crew had gone off to do better things. Some had become their own tribe’s ambassadors, others as war heroes accepting retirement, and those like Panuk became village chiefs. However, Toklo, the youngest of their crew and the youngest male of his family, accepted a position within the royal palace as an apprentice to the blacksmith and in time would be the first to bring engines to land vehicles that would replace ostrich horses and rhino beetles.

And also made up new wings for the ever growing Fire Lord dragon, always in a Water Tribe blue that took to the skies each new moon.

Those of the nation called the presence of dragons a sign of healing. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Edit (July 27): I wrote this in a single sitting and it showed. I just went through and cleaned up a little.


	2. Bonus

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! Here are some scenes that didn't make the original cut!

**Dragon Riding**

Okay, yah, this is cool and all, but his grip on the quick makeshift saddle turned his knuckles white, because Zuko flew like a _maniac._

They banked around the ships and, oh Tui and La, barrel rolled out of sight of a ship coming towards shore just behind an iceberg that would have definitely _hurt_ to splat into. He was going to be sick. But it’s fine—he’s fine—because all they needed to do was get close enough to the Earth Kingdom lighthouse that Fire Nation had taken over and built their outpost around and take out their signal flares before the enemy brought in reinforcements. 

It was fine, the night sky cloudy and making all the more easier for a very big dragon to fly up close undetected. No one noticed the soft footfalls of a man just out of his teenage years land on the roof of the lighthouse, and none of the foot shoulders below knew the two guards in the lighthouse were knocked out cold from a well aimed hit with a club. 

And no one of the Nation was ready for the blast that shook the shore as blasting jelly barrels destroyed its largest ship, and none were ready for the sudden beast to swipe down and knock over the outpost's catapults or collapse its protective walls with just its weight. 

A single Water Tribe crew and a creature of old subdued the entire outpost in just under an hour. 

Toklo may or may not have spent the attack avoiding throwing up his dinner on top of the lighthouse . 

* * *

**Boiling Rock**

**_Version 1:_ ** **Zuko joined Team Avatar after Ba Sing Se and helps save Hakoda**

Zuko left the Water Tribesmen after running into his uncle at a port. They both decided to go together to Ba Sing Se to follow the Avatar to help him this time around and teach the Avatar firebending. At the Crystal Cavern, considering the letters Zuko read about just how much his father would prefer his son’s head or hide rather than be returned alive, as well as his experience with the Water Tribe helping him realize the injustices of his people, Zuko didn’t think twice to try to take out Azula. They escaped together.

But Zuko’s pretty tight lip on where he’s been. So when Sokka asked for help to find his father, Zuko didn’t say anything about knowing his father but was very, _very_ adamant they get him back ASAP. And while Sokka reminded him the new moon is only a day or two away, Zuko didn’t think they’ll even need that time. 

But Zuko was made a prisoner, Sokka’s in guard uniform going like “alright time to look for my dad—“ then without another second, a man barreled into Zuko who turns out to be Hakoda. Zuko got a dad hug before Sokka because Hakoda didn’t recognize him in the guard uniform. This led the awkwardness of finding out Zuko not only knew Sokka's father, but had been essentially adopted.

So Sokka and Hakoda both knew they got to get Zuko out in three days tops. In this timeline, no one of the Fire Nation knows Zuko’s scaly little problem. But he became their escape plan, because no one knew that the ex-prince has been the one taking out fire nation ships during the night only stopping when he joined Team Avatar. 

And Zuko’s had some growth spurts since then. Nothing incredible, but it means he’s very surprising. His height reaches over Appa now, still scraggly as he is but tail too reaching the same length. Plus the agility of having been allowed to use this body more than ever. He may not have unusable wings without Toklo's invention, but he could outrun a man. 

So Zuko essentially found an excuse to be in the warden’s office just before sundown, giving her the fright of her life as a dragon dashed down the halls and eventually managed to pry off the cell doors to Hakoda’s and Tsuki’s cells because every guard's first reaction to a giant monster is to run or hide before realizing what they’re seeing. And by the time they do, Zuko had no concern of spitting a little fire in their direction.

As a dragon, he can withstand the heat of Boiling Rock’s waters for just long enough for them to reach the shore, the boys and Suki riding on his back like their dragon was a sea serpent. When human Zuko returned, his skin’s a little pink like a sunburn but nothing more and it faded over a week. 

But they have a reunion. Hakoda hugged his children and this giant dragon like it were also its child, cradling its head, which freaked out the team to know Hakoda even knew who Zuko was let alone about his dragon form or feel any friendly emotions about the prince of their enemy. And The Gaang learned why they weren’t being pursued after the North Pole and that the next time he showed up he asked to join them. Hakoda stuck around long enough to share stories and come to find out Zuko really isn’t such a bad guy.

“Oh, you should follow me back to the ship one day to retrieve your wings. Toklo’s made a few adjustments.”

“You can fly?!”

**_Version 2:_ ** **Zuko is captured with Hakoda and taken to Boiling Rock**

But let’s say when a dragon started taking out ships, Ozai and Azula knew exactly who that was and realized he never died. 

Like in the show, Hakoda and his crew were captured and Hakoda, being a leader, was taken to Boiling Rock along with Zuko, as the Fire Nation realized he was not only alive, but is the flying beast. 

So they make a very specific solitary confinement space for him to transform that involves chains and guards unafraid to put an animal down. They keep him mostly away from other prisoners because of his nature. So when Sokka showed up to free his father, Hakoda refused to leave without Zuko, who team avatar haven’t seen since the raid on the North Pole and definitely did not know Hakoda knew him.

So Sokka thought this was for information until Hakoda explained just where Zuko’s been all this time and more importantly, where he stands in the war along with what Zuko can do. And Sokka, pretending to be a guard, went back and forth to come up with a plan involving a very big dragon carrying the escapees across Boiling Bay. 

So when they escaped and return to the Gaang’s campsite, Hakoda was like, “this is your brother, Zuko, and he’s gonna teach the Avatar firebending.” And Hakoda just shoved this kid forward and told them to play together nicely before going off to war again, leaving both the Gaang and Zuko speechless. 

* * *

**Kustaa likes his apprentice 2.0**

Zuko flicked his tailed annoyed. 

“Hold still, apprentice!”

He did no such thing, and the crews medic chased his sweeping tail until deciding to finally sit on it to study the scales there and the fur that made the tail.

He flinched and snarled the sting that was nothing more than a mantis-bee. “Calm down, apprentice, I just want to study the follicle,” Kustaa said with a magnifying glass to his eye, a lantern to his right, and the single hair between a pair of tweezers. “Fascinating. Thick like a polar bear dog. Alright, boy.” He stood up releasing the tail only to walk up to the dragon’s glare, the herbology book left open from Kustaa and completely unread. He held a tiny cup. “Spit in this.” 

It turned out dragon saliva is very acidic, and grumpy dragons make poor ship pets.

* * *

**The Day of the Black Sun** : For Version 2 of Boiling Rock

Considering how both MuffinLance and Satirrian haven't reached this point in their fics, I didn't want to step on any toes, but I'd imagine Zuko is there fighting with the Water Tribe. He's kept hidden among the crowd, his face mostly covered from the wolven warrior headdress. Knowing the significance of being allowed to wear such a thing, he's initially against it, but the crew more or less at this point already consider him to be part of them, and what he's done to protect them, to go against his own Nation for what's right, they agree he's deserving. He's kept out of war planning, but that doesn't mean in the evenings Hakoda doesn't seek him out for his input. Sokka is none the wiser, believing his father just thought of loopholes. 

Zuko had no idea what could happen to him during the eclipse. Toklo ensured his wings were ready.

The second the moon dips just an inch into covering the sun, he took on the dragon form. 

The sight of him is an omen to the Fire Nation, as it protected the wave of swamp benders and Water Tribe advancing forward. Those that believe in spirits and greater powers surrender. Those that don't continue to attack. It only last minutes, of course, and in the end Zuko and the others are captured. However, by the end of the Black Sun, many of the Fire Nation who witnessed the dragon deserted without another word. Still, he and Hakoda are taken to Boiling Rock until the Fire Lord or Azula find out what do with him. (They planned for a public execution during the full moon to disgrace the people he allied with, but by then Zuko and Hakoda were busted out by Sokka).

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Boiling Rock would be really interesting, just because of the sweetness of reunions and the awkwardness that is Zuko. Love that kid.
> 
> EDIT (July 27): I forgot "Salvage" takes places just after Zuko breaks out Aang from Pouhai Stronghold, not after the North Pole. I also fixed where I kept saying "Boiler Rock/Bay." There's a Boiler Bay about an hour away from me given its name because a ship's boiler washed up on shore too far up to wash out again.

**Author's Note:**

> Alternative title: "A Downed Dragon, Should be a Dead Dragon."
> 
> Thanks for reading! Check out "[Salvage](https://archiveofourown.org/works/21116591/chapters/50249441)" and "[Dragon Moon](https://archiveofourown.org/works/20032777/chapters/47437291)" at the links!
> 
> Check out my other fic “[Dragon Eyes](https://archiveofourown.org/works/25575961/chapters/62068234).”


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